Soft-Centred Chocolate Chip Cookies
Soft-centred cookies need three things: softened, not melted, butter, an hour of chilling so the dough does not spread, and taking them out while the centre still looks raw — they finish setting on the hot tray.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 12 min
- Total
- 32 min
- Calories
- 190
Cookies that come out flat and thin, or hard like biscuits, usually fail at one step that is always skipped: chilling. That hour in the fridge is the whole difference.
Method
-
1
Cream butter and sugars
Beat the softened butter with both sugars for 3 minutes until light and pale. Melted butter makes the cookies spread and come out thin.
⏱ 4 min -
2
Egg and vanilla
Add the egg, the extra yolk and the vanilla and beat for a minute until combined. That extra yolk adds fat and protein, which keeps the centre soft.
⏱ 2 min -
3
Dry ingredients
Combine the flour, bicarbonate and salt, add to the mixture and fold just until it disappears, then stir through the chocolate. Any extra beating toughens the cookies.
⏱ 3 min -
4
Chill
Cover the dough and refrigerate for at least an hour — or overnight for a deeper flavour. Cold firms the butter so the cookies hold their shape instead of spreading.
⏱ 60 min -
5
Shape and bake
Roll walnut-sized balls and space them 5 cm apart on a tray. Bake at 190°C for 10 to 12 minutes until the edges are golden and the centre still looks underdone.
⏱ 12 min -
6
Cool on the tray
Leave them 5 minutes on the tray before moving them. They finish cooking in the residual heat, and moving them early breaks them apart.
⏱ 6 min
Cooked it? Rate it
Your rating tells the next cook whether this recipe is worth their time.
✓ Thanks — your rating is in.
Tips that actually matter
- The centre must look underdone when it leaves the oven — it finishes on the tray, and that is the secret to softness.
- An hour of chilling minimum; overnight gives a noticeably deeper flavour.
- Brown sugar gives softness and white gives crispness — the mix gives you both.
- The dough freezes as ready-shaped balls for three months and bakes from frozen with two extra minutes.
People also ask
Why do my cookies spread flat?
The dough was not chilled, or the butter was melted rather than softened. An hour in the fridge — cold butter melts more slowly in the oven, so the cookie holds its shape.
Why are they hard?
Overbaked, or beaten after the flour went in. Take them out while the centre still looks raw — they finish on the tray — and fold the flour only until it disappears.
What does the extra egg yolk do?
Yolk is fat and protein without extra water, which gives a richer, softer centre. Extra white would dry the cookies out.
Cook mode
Soft-Centred Chocolate Chip Cookies
-
1
Cream butter and sugars
Beat the softened butter with both sugars for 3 minutes until light and pale. Melted butter makes the cookies spread and come out thin.
-
2
Egg and vanilla
Add the egg, the extra yolk and the vanilla and beat for a minute until combined. That extra yolk adds fat and protein, which keeps the centre soft.
-
3
Dry ingredients
Combine the flour, bicarbonate and salt, add to the mixture and fold just until it disappears, then stir through the chocolate. Any extra beating toughens the cookies.
-
4
Chill
Cover the dough and refrigerate for at least an hour — or overnight for a deeper flavour. Cold firms the butter so the cookies hold their shape instead of spreading.
-
5
Shape and bake
Roll walnut-sized balls and space them 5 cm apart on a tray. Bake at 190°C for 10 to 12 minutes until the edges are golden and the centre still looks underdone.
-
6
Cool on the tray
Leave them 5 minutes on the tray before moving them. They finish cooking in the residual heat, and moving them early breaks them apart.
Comments
Cooked it? Tell us how it went, or ask a question — we read every comment.